Life for Black People After 1865

Life for Black People After 1865

The Civil war finally ended in 1865 but did life really improve for

the Blacks there after? In this essay I am going to give evidence for

and against to support whether or not life did improve. I will discuss

the new organisations that arose such as the Ku Klux Klan and the

Freedmen’s Bureau, As well as the blood and gore side of things. Why

did they use such terrible methods of murder?

1865: 13th Amendment

Slavery Abolished

1868: 14th Amendment

Black people became US citizens protected by the Law

1870: 15th Amendment

Blacks were allowed to vote

The Freedmen’s Bureau was an organisation set up by the government in

1865. It organised education, health care, orphanages and found work

of a reasonable standard for ex-slaves.

By 1874 schools had increased literacy skills among black people to

20%. Many States took this to their advantage and used it as an excuse

to limit the rights of black people. In other words; if you weren’t

able to read and write then you were not allowed to vote! Despite

this, literacy of whites was never checked; this proved that although

the Freedmen’s Bureau was set up to improve the lifestyle of black

people the racism still continued!

The Freedmen’s Bureau wanted to make States listen, but as soon as the

army left the south every State began to govern themselves, made up

their own rules and took no notice whatsoever of the Freedmen’s

Bureau.

Another organisation that crept its way into the rule book was called

sharecropping. This was the system that southern landowners used to

adjust to the changes brought about when slaves had freedom. Sla...

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...song sung by the slaves.

Blacks were forced to use separate Hotels, Transport and schools and

were treated as second class citizens. In states

where the laws had not changed, violence and intimidation were used to

scare black people away from voting and living free lives!

Some aspects of life did improve for the Blacks like The Freedmen’s

Bureau and Sharecropping organisations but the general lifestyle of

the black people did not improve. They were never once treated equally

to white people, their rights were extremely limited and hundreds of

thousands were brutally murdered! Looking at the Amendments that were

made you would think that life had improved but things following on

from them like the Ku Klux Klan prove the total opposite.

Unfortunately severe Racism still continues today in many parts of the

world!